Music Magazine Analysis

Katie Lam

Front Cover• Masthead: NME logo - gives the magazine a brand identity. The bold

font and block colours is a part of NME’s iconography - easily recognisable to both old and new readers. Protruding from the masthead are names of various bands who are also featured in the issue.

• Main image: a portrait photo of Lou Reed, whom the main article is about. The image is in black and white to convey the melancholy and grief regarding Reed’s death. There are no other images on the front cover - this symbolises how this issue is a tribute to the artist. Reed is using indirect mode of address and is not looking into the lens which reflects how, for many people, his death is difficult to face.

• Cover line: all the cover lines featured on the front cover are to do with the Velvet Underground lead. This once again emphasises how the issue is dedicated to him. “Lou Reed” is in bold and underlined which further denotes this. The dates of Reed’s year of birth and year of death are below his name, implying his passing away and readers will immediately be aware of this.

• Puffs: the puffs are placed in the bottom left corner so as to not take attention away from the main image and also to keep all the writing on one side which gives the cover a more minimalistic effect. The words “greatest” and “last” are underlined to highlight the span of Reed’s career and how much of an impact he had to the rock music scene.

• Typography: the typography is uniform - all the fonts are the same and are suited to the house style of NME. The fact that the fonts are sans serif, and not serif, adds to the minimalist effect.

Front Cover• Strapline: “THE PAST,

PRESENT & FUTURE OF MUSIC” - the strapline is located in the bottom right hand corner with the barcode and price tag to keep the front cover as minimalist as possible. The slogan implies that NME is everything that embodies music. The use of three different tenses connotes how the company has a history and legacy, the magazine is at the cutting edge of the music scene and it will be around for a long time.

Contents Page• Layout: the layout of the contents page is

relatively straightforward. There are three columns: - In the top left hand corner of the first column (where people typically read first) are the usual features within the magazine - “On Repeat”, “Radar”, “Reviews” etc. Below are the “Features” - such as the tribute articles to Lou Reed and articles on MGMT and Connan Mockasin. - The second column is another feature of NME’s magazines: “THIS WEEK WE ASK…” - this features articles and interviews from various reporters at NME about artists such as Circa Waves and Courtney Barnett. It provides an insight to the content within the magazine and also provides colour with the images of the bands. Without this section, the contents page would be only black, white and red, which would be less attractive to the reader.- The third column features less-likely-to-be-read information (e.g. The NME Band List). This is because it is on the right hand side and readers typically do not begin to read from the right.

• Typography: a lot of the typography is the same font and they are all sans serif. This is suited to the house style. The headlines are capitalized and highlighted in black to contrast with the white background and make them stand out, as well as easy to read.

Contents Page• Plug: labelled as a “shameless plug” – this is a

phrase that is commonly used to demonstrate promotion of something one is responsible for. The use of multiple exclamation marks and asterisks gives this plug an informality to it and also provides some humour. The plug itself is advertising the magazine’s subscription feature (where readers can receive each issue in the post as soon as it is released). The world “special” is emphasised through being underlined and surrounded by asterisks – this gives the reader the impression that this offer is not around often and they should subscribe to the magazine before they miss out.

• The plug is conveyed as a poster being taped to the wall with red sticky tape in the four corners – this adds to the informality of it and also helps to attract a reader’s attention amongst the black and white writing.

Double Page Spread

• Headline: “The Week” – the headline is in a bold and sans serif font (suited to the contemporary and modern house style). It is in white so that it contrasts greatly with the dark background.